The Oxygen Dilemma: Can Too Much O2 Kill?

"...Flashes of Light. With oxygen poisoning, the victim grows pale, feels as if he were choking, has attacks of nausea, is alternately exhilarated or depressed, has hallucinations (flashes of light, halos around everything, sounds as of bells and knocking). Finally his lips begin to twitch violently (the most common symptom); he goes into convulsions and falls unconscious. The final symptoms are much like those of an epileptic fit. But the victim quickly revives on breathing fresh air and, except for an oxygen jag lasting about an hour, shows no bad aftereffects."

-- Time Magazine, Monday, June 30 , 1947

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Oxygen's deleterious effects at high concentrations have been extensively documented as far back as the first half of the Twentieth Century, and Sci Am - right on top of things, as usual - reports that doctors are only now verifying this well-established fact?

Next month's cover story: What?!? Dewey Didn't Win?

LOL

Another article TIME magazine, and this concerns oxygen in incubators for premature babies, it can have adverse effects on the eyesight.........blindness due to Fibrous tissue growing behind the lens would cloud the eyes and ruin the retina.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,818903,00.html

some excerpts;

Some blamed too early exposure to light; some suspected insufficient vitamins, and a few insisted that an unidentified virus was to blame. Then, in 1951, Dr. Thaddeus S. Szewczyk of East St. Louis, Ill. suggested that careful control of incubator oxygen might control the disease.

The inquiry quickly focused on oxygen. At Harvard, experiments with mice proved that too little oxygen at critical stages of fetal development caused a host of abnormalities, including a condition similar to R.L.F. In Melbourne, Australia, Dr. Kate Campbell recalled that R.L.F. had first appeared in Women's Hospital when new incubators were installed and all premature babies began to get liberal doses of oxygen. In Birmingham, England, doctors pointed out that the incidence of R.L.F. rose when premature infants began to get larger and longer doses of oxygen. When oxygen was reduced, the frequency of the disease decreased.

Interestingly, if the air we breathe did not have the proportions it does, we would quickly die.

The Nitrogen mediates the toxic effects of the Oxygen.

The Carbon Dioxide is required to stimulate the breathing reflex.

We should be thankful to the planetary designer.

As you Posters above say, Sci Am is somewhat behind with certain recent announcements.

Kind Regards....

"...in the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism on March 12"

Now wouldn't it be downright thoughtful of them to tell us in which century this discovery was made? We paleontologists can use all the help we can get.

Its a serious issue, oxygen delivery to infants. Seems the problem is knowing how much the babies lungs fix and constantly adjust the oxygen accordingly. I don't know how to do that lung growth monitor/oxygen delivery control, but this problem is a pickle and worth looking into. My brother is one of the babies that got too much 02 and even though he only recieved mild cerebral palsy, he didn't die as a baby which would have stunk alot. If anybody is looking for a doctorate thesis or whatever...